We freeze all our poultry carcasses and bones, be it chicken, duck or turkey. Then, when the carrots and celery are looking a little droopy, we pull everything out and make a huge batch of stock. Very little gets wasted that way. We usually make stock in the 30 quart black enamelware canner we use for most big jobs. This Small Batch Chicken Stock recipe is small since not everyone has extra freezer space for all those bones or the resulting quarts and quarts of stock. It scales up well though—just add more of everything to match the increased amount of bones/meat. Every batch turns out just a little different depending on what type or types of bird you’ve use, how they were originally seasoned and how much you let the liquid reduce. If you take out the bones and roast them for an hour or so in low (300F) oven and return them to simmer in stock midday way through the process, you’ll have even deeper flavor. If you choose not to add more water to this stock and allow it to reduce for the full time, you’ll end up with a very dense, nutrient-rich stock with a high collagen content, especially great for adding silkiness and oomph to gravies and sauces.
Related Post: Two June’s Homemade Stock: Kitchen Alchemy Here in the kitchen of the TwoJunes, we practice a kind of rough magic on the days we make stock. Our precious “stockpile” of poultry carcasses, limp carrots, slightly wilted celery stalks, withered mushrooms and forlorn parsley stems bubble contentedly in the big pot along with garlic, onion and fresh herbs from the garden.
Ingredients:
- 1 leftover roast chicken carcass or an equivalent amount of stockpiled chicken bones and scraps
- ½ of 1 large onion cut in quarters,
1 head of garlic, unpeeled, halved across (thru the cloves) - 1 carrot
- 2-3 ribs celery
- 2 big leaves collard greens, optional
- ½ of 1 bunch parsley stems, tied
- 2 sprigs thyme
- 1 sprig oregano
- 1 gallon water
Instructions:
- Combine all ingredients a large pot over high heat; bring a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer, uncovered, 4 to 5 hours. Midway through, add water to replenish to original liquid level.
- Strain out solids with colander set over another large pot or bowl. (We pick through the solids for the chicken meat and skin, carrots, celery and garlic, discarding the bones, herbs and onion. This intensely chicken-y mélange we ration out to our very enthused dog. One batch this size makes about 3 cups food, more if you add some cooked rice.)
- Pour stock through fine mesh sieve back into first pot. Cool to tepid. Refrigerate overnight in the pot or transfer to freezer-safe containers if space is an issue.
- Using slotted spoon, skim the fat the fat that has risen to the surface. Freeze stock for up to 6 months.
Yield: 4 quarts stock
Note: Reserved chicken fat or schmaltz can be stockpiled in the refrigerator just like bacon fat and packs a tremendous flavor wallop. TwoJunes use schmaltz in Dog Treats and occasionally treat ourselves to the not particularly healthy, but, oh, so very delicious Matzo Brei. (This recipe is from Burt Handelsman at the Jewish Food Mailing List Archive.) And… many thanks to that fabulous cook, David Bonom, for first introducing us to the wonders of matzo brei for breakfast in the test kitchen in New Jersey.
Recipe courtesy of TwoJunes, Lisa Bell and Nicole Rees